I guess I'll start off with me, and leave the best for last. I was born in mid 1940 so I do have some memories of the Second World War. Mainly of relatives coming home. These being very impressionable years, needless to say I grew up very patriotic. I was taught at an early age to stand at attention, remove my hat and place my hand over my heart whenever "Old Glory" passed by and whenever the National Anthem was played. It has stuck with me for 58 years. Back in those days we had real heroes as well as celluloid heroes. Mine were Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Johnny Unitas, to name a few. Then there was Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Audie Murphy from the movies. These men were bigger then life to me. Sure, these folks had skeletons in their closets, but the press left their private lives, private. Sure made it easier for us kids to have role models, back then. One movie, in particular, influenced my life.......John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima." I made up my mind back then, that I wanted to be a Marine. I loved sports, especially football, so that was to be my main extra curricular activity during my school years here in York, Pa. I played in the Sunday School basketball league and enjoyed sandlot baseball. It took a whole summer to save $22.00 to buy a Mickey Mantle pro model baseball glove back then. $22.00 was a fortune to a kid in the early fifties.

I graduated from high school when I was 17 and quicker then you can say "semper fi," I was at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, S.C. My D.I. said he was gonna be our mama and daddy for the next 3 months. He didn't look like my mama, act like my mama, cook like my mama and the words he used to describe us, I know my mama never heard of, let alone spoke! Where was my mama when I needed her MOST!! All in all, it was a most enlightening experience. I wouldn't give up that experience for all the tea in china, but I'd NEVER want to go through it again!!

After boot camp, it was on to N.A.S. Jacksonville, Fl. for aviation preparatory school (AN"P"). That's when I learned Marine Corps logic. A fellow Marine, further ahead in school then I was, told me that everyone putting in for electronics school was getting assigned as electricians. I wanted to be an electrician, having studied to be an electrician in high school. I put in for electronics and......do I need to say anymore....found myself in Memphis, Tn. for Electronics (AT'A') School. I learned early not to try to out guess the Marine Corps. I hated electronics school. 32 l-o-n-g weeks later, I graduated , and was sent to MCAS Cherry Point, N.C. I really enjoyed working on aircraft. I worked on A4D-2's, T2V's, F9F-8T's, R4D's and AD's as a member of H&MS-14. I spent a brief period of time with VMA-225 and VMA-242 while at Cherry Point. I then re-enlisted and was transferred back to Memphis for, horror of horrors, ADVANCED Electronics School. I hated it...squared!! But, my life was to make a dramatic turn-a-round at this point....I met my wife, Dean! I had met another girl, while stationed at Cherry Point, from my hometown and we had a son Jonathan. Jon is a fantastic son. I regret that I didn't really get to see him, or know him, until he was 14. Anyhow Jon's mother and I divorced, and Dean became my fiancee.

From Memphis it was on to Okinawa and then Viet-Nam. Then to N.A.S. Glynco, Ga. (just north of Brunswick), during which time I ran up to Arkansas and married Dean. I worked on a multitude of different aircraft at Glynco and then it was back to the 'Nam' again. After that tour it was back to Memphis, Tn. for "Charm School" (Instructor's School). Then it was teaching in electronics school, which believe it or not, I thoroughly enjoyed. Back overseas to Okinawa, and then to Memphis for more instructor duty. During this time my daughter Tonja was born. She has been a true blessing in her mother's and my life. I retired from the Marine Corps, in Memphis, in 1978 and went immediately to work for 3M as a technician on C.O.M. (computer output microfiche), microfilm and facsimile equipment. I was transferred from Memphis to Salt Lake City to work on COM equipment there. I had a heart condition from back in Memphis and it turned bad during our stay in Utah. I was placed on long term disability by 3M and I moved my family to my childhood home here in York, Pa. And, here Dean and I be today!

Marine Corps Ball - Glynco, Ga. - 1965	Salt Lake City - 1987	Tonja's Wedding - 1997